Digesting Beans - What Causes
Gas?

While
beans are inexpensive, easy to prepare,
tasty, and loaded with protein and carbohydrates,
many humans avoid them because of the problem
of intestinal gas. Gas is caused by the
body's inability to digest the complex carbohydrates
found in beans.

Carbohydrates can be made
of a single sugar such as glucose or fructose;
a double sugar, like lactose, found in dairy
products; or many sugars. Before any carbohydrate
can be absorbed from the intestines into
the bloodstream, it must be broken down
into a single sugar. If it can't be broken
down, it can't be absorbed, and will pass
whole into the lower intestinal tract where
bacteria ferment it, causing gas. Soaking beans before cooking them will help remove some of these gas-causing sugars and make digesting them easier.

Beans
contain a triple sugar, stachyose, a quadruple
sugar, raffinose, and a five sugar, verbascose,
and since most humans can't digest these
sugars, the bacteria go to work on them
and create fumes through a fermentation
process. Researchers have found that the
enzyme alpha-galactosidase will help break
down these complex sugars. A product, marketed
under the name Beano, to reduce intestinal
gas formation uses this enzyme to help reduce the
formation of intestinal gas. It contains
alpha-galactosidase derived from the mold,
Aspergillus niger.

Beans and Digestion

Problems with digestion is caused by the complex sugars (oligosaccharides) in beans, and soaking is recommended to allow
a greater amount of that sugar to dissolve, thus helping
the beans to be more easily digested. The harder
the class
of beans, the more troublesome they are to digest.

Left unsoaked, the beans still have all the oligosaccharides, which means basically, you’re dumping all that sugar on the natural bacteria in your colon, which just love it. They thrive on sugar so they begin to grow... and grow, and one of the by-products of all that growth is…you guessed it, lots and lots of GAS!

So now you know that, flatulence is a result of two things, mostly the oligosaccharides in the beans which our enzymes can't break them down, but also the type of bacteria housed in your gut. The bacteria population can adapt to the beans is you eat them regularly, and you can also try various remedies like Beano.

To
Improve Digestion

There is
no way to completely
avoid gas when
eating beans.
Some people
are more susceptible
than others,
but here are
some things
that may help
minimize the
digesting problems:

After
boiling
the beans,
if the recipe
allows,
discard
that water
and rinse
the beans
again.

Soak
the beans
and discard
the soaking
water prior
to cooking.

Rinse
thoroughly
under cold
running
water

Cook
the beans
thoroughly.

Eat
small quantities
of beans
for several
days until
your body
adjusts
to them.

Try
legumes
that are
easier to
digest from
the soft
beans group

Avoid
the hard beans
that are
difficult
to digest.

Says:You
might want to
try a product
called Beano™.
As stated on
the label, Beano
is a "food
enzyme supplement
that helps stop
gas before it
starts"
by breaking
down the gas-producing
sugars in beans
as well as in
broccoli, grains,
and other gas-producing
foods. Directions
state to add
five drops of
Beano to your
first bite of
food. Heat inactivates
the enzyme,
so it cannot
be added during
cooking.